Pytheas Online

An examination of issues of civilization and conflict.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Multiculturalism Kills Free Speech - As Intended

In yet another perfect example of how political correctness and multiculturalist ideology is being used to squash free speech and eliminate dissent, a Dutch political cartoonist has been arrested for possibly offending people.

A Dutch political cartoonist was arrested this week on suspicion of insulting people because of their race or religion through his work, authorities said Friday.

The cartoonist, who works under the pseudonym Gregorius Nekschot, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of violating hate speech laws and held overnight before being released, a spokeswoman for his publisher Uitgeverij Xtra said.

"He was arrested with a great show of force, by around 10 policemen," the spokeswoman said.

Ten police officers were needed because, you know, cartoonists are notorious for being heavily armed and fighting to the death.

But wait, isn't the Netherlands part of Europe? Isn't it one of the countries where the right to freedom of speech was born? How could it comes to this? Who, exactly, did the cartoonist offend to justify such a response?

Nekschot is known primarily for cartoons mocking Muslims and leftists, though the spokeswoman said he is a satirist who targets "any strong ideology."

Amsterdam public prosecutor spokeswoman Sanne van Meteren said Nekschot remains a suspect in a criminal investigation.

"We suspect him of insulting people on the basis of their race or belief, and possibly also of inciting hate," she said.

Each is a crime punishable by up to a year in prison under Dutch hate speech laws — or two years for multiple offenses.

Welcome to the West, where all the traditional liberties slowly created by a thousand years of painful cultural evolution are now being surrendered or gutted in order to placate non-Western immigrants, especially Muslims. This is what multiculturalism inexorably leads too - because this is exactly what it was consciously designed to do: destroy the West's internal defenses and demolish Western Civilization from within. As of the moment, multiculturalism is succeeding brilliantly.

Noonan Nails It.

In her most recent opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan manages to sum up the reason that the GOP brand has stagnated, and is surely trundling toward an electoral bloodbath of historic proportions in November. Noonan notes that Republicans have lost three special elections in the last several weeks in traditionally GOP-controlled districts, sparking a panic among the GOP establishment in Washington, which seems unable to grasp why it is in trouble. She quotes RNC leader's take on the situation:

"This was a real wakeup call for us," someone named Robert M. Duncan, who is chairman of the Republican National Committee, told the New York Times. This was after Mississippi. "We can't let the Democrats take our issues." And those issues would be? "We can't let them pretend to be conservatives," he continued.

Noonan then acidly notes:

Why not? Republicans pretend to be conservative every day.

And with one pithy, sarcastic remark, Noonan explains why the GOP has fallen out of favor, not only with its own base, but with the majority of Americans. And why the current GOP leadership is temperamentally incapable of turning the party around.